You Have Problems
by shattered
Summary: A talk with her friends forces Kagome to re-evaluate certain factors in her life. IYK R&R please!


Title:  You Have Problems

Author: shattered

Rating: PG-13 (just to be on the safe side)

Summery:  A talk with her friends forces Kagome to re-evaluate certain factors in her life.

AN:  First IY fic, reviews always welcome, constructive criticism adored, nearly to the point of worship.

Disclaimer:  I ¹ Rumiko Takahashi; Rumiko Takahashi = Owner of Inuyasha and all things affiliated with it;        \ I don't own Inuyasha

You Have Problems 

            "You have problems, Kagome."

            It was the first thing that Kagome had actually registered from the last five minutes of her friends babbling, as such it merited a response.

            "Hun?"  Albeit not the most… articulate one possible.

            Yuka took over for Eri.  "You.  Have.  Problems."

            "What?"  A little bit better than "hun" but not by much.

            This time Ayumi said it.  "You have problems, Kagome."

            "What do you mean?"  Kagome stared at them from a few steps behind them having stopped at the first repetition while they didn't notice for a moment.

            But the answer was apparently coherent enough for the three girls.  "Consider the facts, Kagome.  You have a cute, kind, considerate, respectable guy completely taken with you and yet you blow him off, stand him up, and basically act as if he's a hindrance."  Yuka started.

            Ayumi picked up the train of thought before Kagome could get a word in edgewise.  "You have the guy of most girls' dreams wrapped around your little finger and you act like he's nothing more than a friend.  And to top it off you're constantly talking about some other guy who, from what we've heard doesn't even treat you the way you deserve to be treated."

            Now Eri moved in for the grand finale.  "So what else can be ascertained except that you have problems?"

            "But-"  And Kagome's comment was cut off.

            "Oh, look, we're here.  Bye, Kagome.  Happy birthday!"  The other two added their birthday wishes and waved then all three turned to leave Kagome standing in front of the steps up to the jinja.  The miko turned and headed up the steps not knowing that a figure dog ears and a dog's excellent hearing had been hiding in the trees that reached the road.

            Half way up she walked over to the side of the steps by the stand of trees that served as a reminder of the forest that had once encompassed the area, Inuyasha no Mori it had once been called, Inuyasha's Forest.  The girl, whose seventeenth birthday was the morrow, plopped down and started to mutter to herself.  Ignorant of the fact that the hanyou in the trees could hear ever word.

            "Hojo-kun is just a friend, and it's not like I haven't tried to make that clear to him, he just hasn't gotten it yet.  It's not my fault he's dense.  And I can't like him like they want me to, he's jut too… boring, childish, annoying.  And okay, so yeah, the guy I _do _like tends to get childish and annoying too, but he's not boring, and he's even cuter when he's angry.  Oh, my god!  Did I just say that out loud?  Damn, I did."  Kagome let out a sigh, thinking.

            In the trees behind her thoughts raced through Inuyasha's mind at dizzying speed.  'Who the fuck is she talking about?!  Who does she like?!  I'll kill him whoever he is!  Nobody touches _my_ Kagome!…  Wait, "my" Kagome?  She's not mine, she doesn't like me like that.  But I'll _still_ kill this guy that she likes.  No one takes Kagome from me.'  Here he too sighed, though quietly, 'Except Kagome herself… she always leaves me behind to come back here.  I hate this place, it steals Kagome from me.'

            Kagome lifted her face from her study of her knees to gaze out at the street, watching the cars.  "But of course he'll never think of me like that, to him I'm just a shard detector and supplier of ramen."  Another sigh fought to be released as she watched the progress of a couple traveling by foot, hand in hand.

            'Did she just imply what I think she just implied?  She had to have!  Please say she did!!'  And the hanyou watched as she slowly levered herself off the step, turned, hesitated and glanced back to where the couple had moved out of her field of view,  After staring for a long moment she completed the turn and headed the rest of the way up the steps to the courtyard in front of her house then progressed inside slipping off her shoes as she stepped into the building.

            Inuyasha shifted to the branches of the Goshinboku, and sat there thinking for an hour or two he wasn't really paying attention.  After a  while he peeked around the trunk of the tree to see what Kagome was doing and found her sitting at her window staring at… something… he couldn't tell what.  Curiosity got the better of him and he jumped over to find out landing on a branch about three feet from her open window.

            She hadn't reacted, which told he that she wasn't so much staring as she was zoning out.  He wondered again if she had meant what he had thought she had meant earlier on the steps.  So he decided to find out.

            "Kagome.  Kagome.  Oi, wench, whacha' looking at?"

            "Hmm?"  And her eyes cleared and focused on him.  "Inuyasha?  What are you doing here?"  And then she noticed where he was and took a step back from the window, "and get in here."

            "I got sick of watching Sango bash Miroku over the head, Miroku flirt with anything female that walks on two legs, and Shippou was getting annoying."  He answered as he climbed through the window and into her room.

            "Ah.  How long have you been here?"  She asked with just a hint of nervousness in her mannerisms as she sat down at her desk chair.

            "Long enough."  Was his only response as he sat on  her bed.  'How to ask?  How to ask?  How do I ask her if she likes me?!'  Inuyasha's thoughts were slowly getting more and more unsure of his path.  'Might as well just get to it.'

            "When you were talking to yourself you said something about a guy that you like… and I …umm…"  Inuyasha's face was turned down so he didn't see Kagome's entire posture stiffen, her face pale, her eyes glaze over, or her expression fade away to nothing.  But then again her clouded eyes didn't take in the deep blush staining across his face a shade of red as dark as his haori.  "…Umm… you implied that it is… umm… me."  And during the entire sentence his voice got softer and softer until the last word was nigh inaudible.

            "Yes… I … I did." And her statement slowly got louder… stronger as it progressed and the blood that had so recently fled her cheeks crept back in a soft blush.

            Inuyasha's gaze spirited up to her light pink face and then back down to the floor as he stuttered out his next question.  "Is it?  Am I?"

            And she shot a look at him and caught his gaze as he glanced up.  After holding it for a moment they both blushed harder then turned away, she chewed her bottom lip for a nervous few seconds she answered.

            "Yes."

            "You like me?"  Astonished.

            "Yes."  Her face bright red and her gaze on her hands, knowing that he was looking at her.

            The hanyou slowly stood and cautiously moved closer until he was standing right in front of her, as she ignore his approach.  After standing for a little bit and getting no reaction he lower himself onto his knees.  One clawed hand reached out to tilt her face to his so he could look her in the eyes.

            "Good."

            "Wha?  Why?"

            "Because I like you too."

            "Me, or the bit of Kikyou that you see in me?"  Bitterness clung to her tone like Velcro, and he took a few steps back in shock and hurt.

            "You.  You are you, not Kikyou, Ka go me.  Kagome.  You share the same soul and a similar face, that is all you share."

            "She loved you, too."

            "Did she?  If she loved then why didn't she trust me?  If she loved me then why did she want me to change?  To become human?  If she loved me why is she trying to hurt me now?"  He got a half step closer with every question till he was right back in her face.

            "You loved her."  Her face turned away not daring to look him in the eyes as she said it.

            "Did I?  I thought I did, for a long time I thought I did.  But I didn't trust her either and you couldn't really call any of our encounters before her death truly emotional.  I trust you, with my life and my soul, and with you I don't have to hold back my emotions because I know that you won't, and you seem like me as I am.  You do like me as I am, don't you?"  He sounded a bit unsure about the last bit but the rest of his speech was well done.

            "Yes, yes I do.  I love you, ningen, hanyou, or youkai.  No matter what you are, you are Inuyasha and it is Inuyasha that I love."  At her words he pulled her into a tight embrace, her head nestle into his neck and his face buried in her hair, his tears wetting the strands.  It was a while before the hair was wet enough to draw her attention but when it did she looked up and asked "Why are you crying?"

            "You love me.  I didn't even fully comprehend what I felt for you until today and now you've told me you love me and I know that I love you and it's just perfect.  Tomorrow afternoon we'll go back to my time and danger and the hunt for the Shikon no Kakera but for right now it's perfect.  For right now life is good.  And I'll always love you so there will be more chances for this perfection and I can't wait."

            "Neither can I."  And she pulled away just enough to look him in the eye and smile, a real, genuine, beautifully full smile.

            And for a few seconds her let her before deciding that there were other things that he wanted her mouth doing.  …Namely, meeting his.

            And Inyasha was right, it was temporary perfection.

* ~owari~ *

AN:  Hope you all liked it.  Review, please.

Japanese Glossary:

Jinja- a Shinto shrine or temple

Miko- a Shinto priestess

Hanyou- half demon

-kun- an honorific used for guy friends of about the same age

Goshinboku- the god tree

Haori- the outer kimono that Inuyasha wears

Ningen- human

Youkai- demon

Shikon no Kakera- shards of the Shikon

Extra Word(s):

Nigh- Old English- _adj._- near, close to


End file.
